A judicial investigation was opened Tuesday after the removal by his mother of a 16-month-old girl to a nursery of Logelbach-Wintzenheim, in the Haut-Rhin, where the child had been placed, announced the floor of Colmar.
This girl, who was placed "in the framework of an educational assistance procedure, opened following the finding of a situation of child in danger", was first entrusted to a family of welcome to this nursery, said the prosecutor, Catherine Sorita-Minard, in a statement.
A call for witnesses launched
Friday, during a visit, the mother of the child, of Romanian nationality, "seized the girl and fled in a Mercedes class E gray vehicle" led by a third party, the statement said. However, the procedure "abduction alert" was not triggered, the prosecutor's office considered that it was "not adapted to the situation".
To initiate this procedure, it is necessary that the facts of kidnapping of a minor are proven and that the life or the physical integrity of the victim is threatened. However, a call for witnesses was launched to try to determine the escape direction of the kidnappers and identify them, then search warrants were released, while the kidnappers are likely to have "fled to a neighboring country".
Three to five years in prison
An investigating magistrate has been appointed to conduct the investigation and possible international cooperation. The two wanted persons incur respectively three and five years of imprisonment for subtraction of minor by ascendant or by a third, with the aggravating circumstance that it is retained outside the national territory.